DEJA VU

London has "The Mouse Trap," a theatrical production of an Agatha Christie mystery playing continuously since 1952.

Chicago has the Bears stadium issue, a different sort of melodrama that began an open-ended run in 1975 and shows no signs of closing.

The Bears are one of the National Football League's charter teams, but they've never played in a genuine football stadium, settling instead for baseball's Wrigley Field and Soldier Field, which was built to host track events.

This situation led Papa Bear George Halas to demand a new home from Mayor Daley the First, or he'd relocate his team to suburban Arlington Heights. Da Mare replied that the name Chicago would have to stay behind.

Not a bad opening act, but the show was just warming up.

When Michael McCaskey took over as head Bear after Mr. Halas' death, he continued the stadium chase. One promising notion would have paired the Bears with the Chicago White Sox in a multi-use stadium in the South Loop area. But it was 1985 and the Bears were on their way to Super Bowl glory. Maybe the team had enough momentum to win a stand-alone stadium.

Wrong.

A few years later, in league with Mayor Eugene Sawyer, Mr. McCaskey sought to build a stadium on the West Side, near Chicago Stadium. But the plan hinged on grabbing land owned by William Wirtz, the strong-willed real estate and liquor baron who owns the Blackhawks. Mr. Wirtz crushed the effort before it got off the ground.

The '90s have been just as cruel.

Difficulties with financing, because football stadiums generate revenue only 10 times a year, ended other flirtations with suburban Chicago locales. The team has been caught up in the feud between Gov. Jim Edgar and Mayor Daley the Second over a proposed domed stadium at McCormick Place.

Even Gary, Ind., got into the act when a consortium of local business and civic leaders in 1995 proposed a vast stadium/entertainment complex dubbed Planet Park. Local politicians scuttled the deal because it would have increased taxes.

The latest would-be home is Elk Grove Village, though there's been little talk of how the team would privately finance a stadium there.

Meanwhile, the Bears' lackluster on-field performance over the past several seasons has dried up whatever reservoir of goodwill remained from that glorious mid-'80s franchise.

Adding insult to injury, while the Monsters of the Midway still look for new digs, every professional Chicago team except the Cubs has gotten a new home since 1991.